Hot Topics:

Broomfield postpones decision on oil, gas moratorium

Council will address topic again in late February; community meetings to be planned prior

By Jennifer Rios

Staff Writer

Posted:
01/10/2017 10:32:53 PM MST

Updated:
01/26/2017 12:00:49 PM MST

Some Broomfield city council members saw the 5-month oil and gas moratorium as a hammer in their tool box that they could use only once — after that, negotiations with Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. could be more focused on litigation than the needs of residents.

Council will revisit the topic at the end of February, and community meetings are planned in the meantime.

According to a council agenda released Friday evening, Broomfield is organizing a community forum that will include the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and Extraction to provide an opportunity for council and residents to hear more information and clarification regarding oil and gas development.

This meeting is expected to occur in late January or early February.

At the end of a six-hour meeting Tuesday night, Broomfield decided to pause and not act on the moratorium in a 5-4 vote.

Councilman Kevin Kreeger wanted to adopt the moratorium, but adjust so it would start March 14 and run for six months. That motion failed 5-4.

After listening to more than three hours of public comment, most which seemed in favor of the moratorium, council members discussed their options and their objective.

Councilman Sam Taylor said the health, safety and welfare of citizens of Broomfield are the outcomes he wants to pursue.

"If we pass it today, we will no longer be negotiating from a position of strength," he said. "It'll be a line in the sand."

Advertisement

Other council members, such as Stan Jezierski and Bette Erickson, voted in favor of the moratorium, the initial language of which said it would halt oil and gas activity until June 13.

Jezierski said he appreciates the concessions made by Extraction so far, but saw a moratorium as a start to a negotiation, rather than an endpoint.

"I'm elected to represent citizens. I'm elected to be their voice at this dias," Councilwoman Bette Erickson said. "For that reason I intend to support the moratorium."

People began lining up at Broomfield's city council meeting nearly three hours before it began, seeking prime seats to see and hear a lengthy discussion on a proposed five-month oil and gas moratorium.

One official estimated that 500 to 600 people were at the meeting. Community members spent about two and a half hours asking council to either pass the moratorium or continue to work with Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. and avoid legal battles down the road.

An attorney representing Extraction was one of the last people who signed up to comment and told council a fracking moratorium would not be legal. An attorney with the Colorado Oil & Gas Association also advocated against the moratorium.

At the beginning of the meeting, City and County Attorney William Tuthill pointed to a line in last spring's Supreme Court decision that invalidated Broomfield's five-year moratorium.

"Their next sentence gives us hope," he said, when it referenced the length of the moratorium, implying that he believed a five-month would be constitutional.

Sentiments that Broomfield is "kicking the can down the road" and that people had feelings "deja vu" were heard throughout the night as Broomfield continued it's 30-year discussion on oil and gas.

Former mayor Pat Quinn encouraged council to tackle oil and gas on a "comprehensive planning basis" and offered to help. Quinn was a member of Gov. John Hickenlooper's 19-member Oil and Gas Task Force in 2014.

Quinn said such planning would require input from residents, oil and gas represetiatvies and Broomfield.

He said the past six months "behind closed doors," referencing negotiations in executive sessions that the public is not allowed to attend, will not get Broomfield the results it desires.

Several council members thanked Quinn for his comment at the end of the meeting and felt they should take him up on his offer.

Quinn asked Broomfield council to not pass the moratorium because it will be a red flag to people in the industry and will put them in "legal action mode."

"I'm recommending that you delay," Quinn said, and "continue the moratorium until Feb. 14 (or two business meetings away)."

Extraction, a Denver-based company that plans drill in northern Broomfield, presented an updated proposal that its representatives said showed they listened to resident's concerns.

The updated plan would include eliminating one well and moving 25 wells east and farther away from neighborhoods.

The new plan for the four well sites, called Lowell, Sheridan, United and Huron, planned along the North Parkway, reduces the overall well count from 140 to 139 and moves 25 wells — 14 from Sheridan and 11 from Lowell — east to the Huron and United pads.

City council had the option to vote for or against the moratorium ordinance, amend the ordinance, or postpone its vote.

At the first reading of the moratorium in December, between 350 and 400 people attended the meeting. Council voted to move the item to this week's meeting and second reading.

Broomfield does not have any regulations relating to potential fees to address the impact of large-scale drilling and production operations on roads and traffic, which is an area where local governments have an ability to regulate or impose impact fees.

The moratorium ordinance was drafted to allow Broomfield staff time to review its existing land use regulations to determine if any changes should be recommended.

If council passes the ordinance, it would halt oil and gas activity until June 13.

Hearings regarding spacing applications related to the Lowell and Sheridan drilling sites, filed with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, have been continued until March at Extraction's request.

According to a council agenda released Friday evening, Broomfield is organizing a community forum that will include the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and Extraction to provide an opportunity for council and residents to hear more information and clarification regarding oil and gas development.

This meeting is expected to occur in late January or early February.

The Colorado Supreme Court struck down bans in Longmont and Fort Collins last spring. Shortly after Broomfield's moratorium was invalidated.

Extraction President Matt Owens said the company prides itself on consolidating operations to minimize its footprint, including removing 41 vertical wells, and implementing new technologies to minimize inconvenience to the community, including running a drilling rig off electricity instead of diesel.

He also announced plans Extraction has with the Butterfly Pavilion to help with the $1 million in landscaping it plans to put at each of the four drilling sites.

Extration hopes to install pipelines, although some residents were skeptical about that happening. They tried to assuage resident concerns by saying it will use facilities designed to capture 99.9 percent of all emissions.

"I don't care what it's designed to do. I care about what it actually does," resident Sarah Hall Mann said.

She said Extraction was "well spoken," but that representatives used a lot of qualifying language, including a statement about "no widespread systematic impact" along the Front Range. Similar language was used in an EPA preliminary fracking report in June 2015, she said, but it was later removed from an updated report in December.

"The poison is often in the dose," she said, and by consolidating well sites, Extraction is bringing a large number of wells close to schools, parks and homes.

Miriam Anderson, who at 15 was one of the night's youngest residents who commented, apologized for her tears as she talked about Colorado's beauty and how upset she was that such a large industrial operation was moving so close to her home.

Throughout the evening, some residents said they live within hundreds of feet of the drilling pads. Anderson wondered what her generation's future holds as far as water supply in the future if leaks occur in the future.

"It appalls me," Anderson said. "Because of this, I desperately want this council and this city to do anything in their power to protect residents like myself who are very uneasy about the effects of oil and gas development close to our homes."

"It's not a wild grass issue, it's not an Anthem issue its a Broomfield issue," planning and zoning member David Milender said.

He asked council to seek assistance from committees that regularly deal with landscaping, traffic studies and other issues being discussed. As a trial lawyer, he told council that it has tools and resources to take on Extraction, whom some council said misled them with the number of wells that would be drilled on each site.

Council members recognized the health concerns involved, but several pointed to improved technology to help prevent harmful effects. Several also pointed out that Broomfield is not trying to ban the industry.

"To frack or not to frack - that is not the question," Councilwoman Sharon Tessier said.

She said she appreciates the technology that Extraction works with, from pipelines and thermal energy cameras to check for spills to landscaping, and that it is better than what Broomfield had.

Going forward, she sees this as a community effort.

"Do I think local governments need to be part of the conversation? Absolutely."

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story